Even punters feel the heat in this series
PITTSBURGH – Chris Gardocki found himself flat on his back, the wind knocked out of him and Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker Joey Porter hovering above him.
His temper rising every second he was on the turf, the Cleveland Browns’ punter got up and flashed an angry gesture toward coach Bill Cowher and the Steelers’ bench.
Right about then, Gardocki began to realize the Browns-Steelers rivalry is like few others in the NFL, one in which even punters aren’t immune from the emotion and physicality that accompanies it.
“It’s huge,” Gardocki said of the semiannual series that will be renewed Sunday in Pittsburgh. “That play was four years ago, but it’s funny how everybody remembers that. But that’s just part of it when you’re in the game. If you’ve ever played this game, you understand what it’s like on Sunday.”
A Browns-Steelers matchup almost guarantees it won’t be any ordinary Sunday, as Gardocki found out on Sept. 17, 2000. Porter’s hit on Gardocki was clean – Gardocki may be the punter, but he also is a potential tackler – but Gardocki felt the Steelers had gone out of their way to also put a hit on him earlier in the game.
“It’s an unfortunate situation that, in the middle of the football game, they had to pick on the punter,” Gardocki said.
At halftime, Browns cornerback Corey Fuller was so upset that he ran by the Steelers sidelines and yelled at Cowher.
What’s curious is Gardocki now finds himself on the other side of the Brown-Steelers matchup. He signed with the Steelers during the off-season, ending a five-year run in Cleveland that followed four seasons in Indianapolis and four in Chicago.
Gardocki remains friends with many of the Browns players, especially kicker Phil Dawson, for whom he once held for kicks. Not that his friendships will affect how Gardocki approaches a game that could give the Steelers only their second 4-1 start in eight seasons.
“Come Sunday, we’re going to want to beat those guys,” Gardocki said. “When it comes to game time it’s game time, everything else is secondary.”
Gardocki doesn’t know if the feistiness he showed the Steelers had anything to do with their unexpected decision to sign him as a free agent and release Josh Miller, who now punts for the New Englad Patriots.
The decision cost the Steelers an extra $1 million or so above what they would have paid to keep Miller and, so far, Miller has outpunted Gardocki both for average (47.7-43.5) and for average net yardage (39.5-35.0). But Cowher likes Gardocki’s history of kicking well in cold weather, and the fact none of his 1,002 punts has been blocked.
“I don’t know about that, when you’re in a ballgame and stuff like that happens, you don’t think about it until afterward,” Gardocki said. “You regret when you do something stupid like that, but when I’m in a ballgame, you’re really into the game and focusing on what you’re doing. Something happened and it’s over with.”